If you want to be Captain Planet, turn off extra lights for an hour on March 23

Earth Hour will be celebrated on the day from 8:30pm to 9:30pm.

KARACHI: Pakistan is all set to join more than 125 countries on March 23 in a mission to save the earth’s vanishing resources. On this day, the World Wide Fund for Nature - Pakistan (WWF-P) will celebrate Earth Hour from 8:30pm to 9:30pm. During this time, people will be asked to voluntarily switch off all extra lights.

In order to get more people on board, WWF-P has selected renowned celebrities as Ambassadors for Earth Hour 2013. They include legendary actor Samina Pirzada, drama icon Adnan Siddiqui, pop music sensation Faakhir Mehmood, fashion icon Frieha Altaf, photographer Tapu Javeri as well as models Mekhaal Zulfiqar and Ayesha Omar.

On Monday, the ambassadors united to inaugurate the event and urge people to save the planet. Most of them singled out the use of polythene bags as a major environmental issue. Others spoke about the harmful practice of burning mounds of garbage.

“Let’s save our beautiful planet. Let’s save water and let’s conserve whatever we can,” said Pirzada in a press briefing after the inauguration ceremony was over. She added that polluters need to stop being greedy as their children are the ones who will inherit the earth.

Siddiqui chimed in and added that he thinks that voluntary efforts to conserve the environment will help stabilise Pakistan’s economic conditions. “We should save energy daily. This is a positive step towards progress and prosperity.”



Popstar Faakhir said, “I announce today that I won’t buy anything from a store which uses polythene bags.” He urged others to follow in his footsteps and not tolerate the swarm of polythene bags which glide around the streets after they have been discarded. “We must tell our children what is important for our environment and what can harm it.”

Renowned photographer Tapu Javeri said that it seemed as if nature is slowly vanishing from cities and moving further away from urban centres. He said that in the past he used to take scenic photographs of the beach which has now become somewhat of an eyesore given all the polythene bags and other garbage strewn all over the sand.

Sheikh Mohammad Afzal, the former environment and energy minister, said that Earth Hour 2013 will mark the fourth consecutive year that the provincial government will be supporting the event.

“Around 60 megawatts were saved in 2012 and with strong outreach and support from the media, we could save more energy.” He also encouraged people to use biodegradable plastic bags to mitigate environmental degradation. “The media can play a constructive role in creating awareness about the conservation of earth’s resources.”

Anwar Naseem, WWF-P’s senior director of corporate relations, stated that the need of the hour are the three As: attention, awareness and action. He added that Earth Hour aims to change the mindset of masses across the globe. “It aims to capture the audience, create knowledge and ultimately stimulate greener actions all year round.”

After the event, a number of guests, including environment secretary Mir Hussain Ali and WWF-P representatives Dr Ejaz Ahmed and Rab Nawaz lit candles with the official ambassadors and corporate partners.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 12^th, 2013.